Sermon Previews, Newsletter Pieces, Random thoughts about Ministry and Life

Thursday, January 26, 2017

February Newsletter

Last
year at the Annual Congregational Meeting you approved new Vision and
Mission Statements. Just to refresh your memory, this is what they
say:

Our
Mission

Through
Faith, we walk on the path Jesus set for us.

The
people of St. Paul’s Belong… Believe… Listen… Love… Lead.

Our
Vision

Celebrating
the gifts of the spirit we are a loving and supportive congregation
in service to the Church, the Community, and the World through Faith.

The
theory goes that once you have Vision and Mission Statements they
then guide everything that the organization does, that everything we
do is to live them out. With that in mind, at our January meeting I
asked Council to think about 2 questions. One was to name 3 things
that are already being done in the life and ministry of St. Paul’s
that show our commitment to our vision and mission. I am sure you
will be happy (and hopefully not surprised) to know that Council had
no problem answering that question – in fact they felt overly
limited by only naming 3 (and did name 5 or 6 before being brought
back on task).

How
would you answer the question? What are the top things we do as a
congregation that show us living out the words in the statements
above?

The
next question I asked them was looking forward. This exercise was
actually part 2 of the exercise we had done at our November meeting,
when I asked what we might do if we were suddenly gifted with $2
million (a previous newsletter asked that question). This month I
asked Council to name 3 things that we could commit to doing in 2017
to further live out our vision and mission, suggesting that some of
the “holes” we had identified in November’s discussion might
help create ideas (ones that did not require the fictional money).

Your
Council likes to dream. Once again limiting to 3 ideas was a
challenge. There were lots of ideas about what we “could” do. In
the end our ideas were more exploratory than concrete, ready-to-do
tomorrow actions. But here is what we came up with:

-
Explore ways we can partner with agencies that work with the
homeless, for a more regular offering of a meal in our space – such
as the one Memphis Blues hosted here, perhaps getting other
restaurants on board to provide the food.

-
Explore / ask the question of the men … on whether we need more
opportunities, gatherings for men of the congregation to interact,
meet and have fellowship.

-
Explore / ask the question of the youth/ youth leaders: What more can
we do or offer in terms of opportunities so they know youth are
welcomed, applauded and appreciated for their involvement in services
(doing powerpoint, leading services, serving at communion, etc) and
in all aspects of the life of the church family?

-
Continue to look for and foster opportunities for small group
engagement such as the Sunday “Lunch Bunch”

Which
of those suggestions excites you? What would you add to the list?

I
like all of these ideas, we just need to get people who are excited
and will help them grow legs. Given the chance, I might add finding
some more ways of being present in/reaching out to the wider
community. And I still have a dream of offering monthly alternative
worship (or maybe we start with quarterly and build from there?).

I
encourage us to be bold. I encourage us to take risks. Somethings we
might try and they will not work. Some things we might explore and
find enthusiasm or interest lacking. But unless we step out in faith
we will never know what is possible.

What
will we do this year to expand how we live out our vision and
mission? Where will the path of discipleship, of following Jesus, of
sharing in God’s work of Kingdom-building lead us this year?